If you haven’t had a chance to check out the open world MMO Wild Terra, your chance to do so has arrived. From today until May 21, you can play the game for free. Check it out on Steam, and if you like what you see you can pick up the full game for just $12.74. Wild Terra is an open world MMORPG currently in early access on Steam. For a sneak peek at gameplay, take a gander at the trailer below.
(Source: Wild Terra)
The Exiled is an upcoming game that promises to blend MOBA combat in a sandbox MMO, and the developer has detailed the final alpha test for 2016. Sandbox MMOs, as well as the rest of the genre, pretty much live and die based on server population, so what do you do when the population gets too low? It is nearly 2017, so if you haven’t automated the process, you’re going to be left behind.
In The Exiled, the latest alpha release notes point that servers will shut down if the population reaches a low enough level that players can’t fight off attacks.
Game worlds now require an active player base to defend against daily attacks on the valley. If players on one game world do not manage to donate enough resources to the defense, this world dies and all players on it will migrate as refugees to a different, more active game world.
You can check out more on The Exiled at the official website. MMO Fallout will be covering the game further.
MMO Fallout has partnered with Wild Terra to hand out beta keys to 30 lucky (or fast acting) gamers. Wild Terra bills itself as an MMO life simulator in a fully developed player-driven medieval world. The game is currently on Steam Greenlight seeking approval and Juvty Worlds would like to get you in as soon as possible.
Check out the trailer and grab a key for yourself. Players will also receive a Steam key once the game goes live on said platform. Don’t forget to vote for Wild Terra on Steam Greenlight (link above).
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Chronicles of Elyria is getting a huge amount of attention thanks to its Kickstarter campaign, currently at $673,000 out of $900,000 with 25 days to go in its campaign. A lot of the attention comes from the very unique concept that the game bases itself on, that your character actually grows up, lives, and eventually dies of old age. Characters age over the course of 10 to 14 months, with that exact life expectancy based on player actions during that time frame, and after death are reincarnated more powerful than before.
It also creates an interesting monetization strategy that is effectively an annual subscription. When your character dies, reincarnation costs one spark of life, which costs real money. Each death in-game takes away approximately two days off of your life, however the campaign has some murky explanation that more important players actually receive more severe penalties upon death. It isn’t completely clear, but it looks like the more influential your character, the more time that death takes off of your play schedule.
“…each in-game death reduces your overall lifespan (by approximately 2 days) and brings your character that much closer to permadeath. However, if you’re an influential player (the king perhaps), each in-game death is more impactful, leading to permadeath in just 4 or 5 times.”
Otherwise Chronicles of Elyria is gunning for the sandbox realism crowd. Your character stays online and continues to do things while you are offline, combat has more focus on your ability to dodge and parry than simply spam buttons, and there are no NPC quests or mini-map.
One thing that I’ve talked about in great lengths in the past is that hardcore sandbox MMOs tend to confuse hand-holding with providing important features, an important distinction that makes Eve Online a massive success while Mortal Online and Darkfall feed off of scraps in the dumpster out back. It looks like Soul Bound Studios is getting the picture, because the game is boasting several features you don’t normally see in MMOs of this genre.
First off, players will be able to give quests, using the example of an offline player character merchant being able to task players with bringing him needed reagents. To force honesty on both sides, the merchant can issue a contract which both sides must agree on and fulfill with the threat of consequences if they don’t hold up their end. It’s a very simple function, Player A provides resource and Player B pays him by this date otherwise someone will be penalized. It is so easy, in fact, you wonder why games like Mortal Online and Darkfall didn’t add it in.
Which doesn’t mean your ability to BS other players is being diminished. While the game doesn’t provide a mini-map, it will be possible for cartographers to and map makers to create maps to sell to other players. According to the Kickstarter campaign, it will also be possible to lie on the maps. It is also possible to change the name that NPCs use to refer to towns by how popularly the town is titled, meaning you’ll possibly be traveling from Dongton down to Dongville passing by Lake Dong and of course Butthole Creek.
Let’s be fair, the way the contract system is being advertised sounds ridiculously complicated on the developer’s end, but can potentially be the powerful tool that sets CoE apart from its failed brethren. According to the campaign page, you’ll be able to sign trade contracts, set up trade routes, create a shipping business, hire assassins, employ people to bring you resources, all kinds of stuff. I really want more details on this, though, because it can make or break the atmosphere especially when it comes to enforcing those contracts.
One bit I don’t entirely buy is the idea that the system will reduce griefing. Every sandbox developer thinks that they’ve found the cure for rampant griefing and Chronicles of Elyria will have to prove that it is different. You see, the problem with sandbox games is that the differences between griefing and playing as a bandit are very difficult to tell, especially when you’re building a computer system to identify and sort the two out. Banditry is a valid style and kinda popular in the sandbox community, it isn’t that players find the conduct acceptable as much as they don’t like the idea of developers restricting gameplay.
And it looks like Chronicles of Elyria thinks that they can curb griefing by simply punishing players for killing each other. It’s a bold move, one that could backfire horrendously by merely lowering the life expectancy for griefers who didn’t intend to stay long anyway before moving on to their next game, while alienating players who want a more fleshed out world in which to play bad guy. It sounds great on paper, but could seriously affect the long term viability of the game as the direct financial punishment of death makes the game feel more restricted.
“If you kill another character in-game, your face goes up on a wanted poster and a bounty token is created for you. This not only keeps you out of cities, but also means you can be taken to ‘jail’ which significantly reduces your lifespan, adding real financial repercussions to your in-game decisions.”
I expect to see a fair amount of buyer’s remorse from people who pledge at higher levels in return for pets/mounts/equipment only to find out (hopefully they read the pledge details) that items can be lost and pets/mounts can be killed by NPCs and presumably other players. There has been a fair amount of criticism over the fact that backers at the $120 level and above will receive three months of early access to the live game, not to mention the kind of rewards you get once your pledge starts hitting four digits.
Alternately, you can bet that the campaign is going to get roasted for perceived pay to win.
Overall, I want to see more of Chronicles of Elyria. There is a good long while until the game comes out, so we have plenty of time to get acquainted.
(Source: Kickstarter)
Greed Monger has once again been cancelled, leaving everyone who pledged the over ninety grand out of luck, again. The MMO was Kickstarted to the tune of ninety grand, only to face development issues and eventual cancellation under Jason Appleton and Electric Crow Games. Appleton handed over the title to ex-employee Jason Proctor who has, in turn, announced that the game has been cancelled.
After careful consideration giving GM’s track record and the number of people we still have in the community we have decided it’s best to put Greed Monger to rest for good. There is no way that Greed Monger could support it’s self with as small of a user base as we would have.
We’ll have to see if this is the last time that Greed Monger is momentarily resuscitated. For now, it appears that the game is back where it was always headed, the defunct category.
(Source: Greed Monger)
Divergence Online is an on-again, off-again MMO looking to replace the defunct MMO Star Wars Galaxies. But while Star Wars Galaxies still has thousands of people playing it, albeit on private servers, the first couple of months in early access seem to have left Divergence Online in the dust. This weekend brought in a peak of 5 concurrent players while the last month or so has seen server populations as high as twelve. There are presently two people online at 9:00pm EST on Sunday evening.
Granted, for all the grandstanding about internet celebrities demanding free copies of the game, it appears that gamers haven’t exactly been rushing for the chance to fund a trip down nostalgia lane. Divergence Online peaked at 63 concurrent players during its initial launch phase on Steam and sharply declined over the following weeks. Steam Spy estimates upward of 2,400 people own the game. Given a genre that relies on an active userbase, Divergence Online may have trouble bringing in new customers to fund its early access development.
Meanwhile, if you’d like to play a functioning version of Star Wars Galaxies with an active community, it exists.
(Source: Steam Charts)
Generations from now, humanity’s survivors will look back and wonder how did we fail? What caused the virus that wiped out 90% of the world’s population? Was it a plague, disease, or wrath of god? No. The fall of society came when Taylor Swift announced that she was retiring from music and would only release further albums in the form of Kidz Bop covers. The fabric of reality tore, civilizations fell, and Nancy Grace’s show was cancelled. I suppose the news isn’t all bad.
I wake up in the middle of nowhere, nothing on my person but a flashlight and the clothes on my back. I don’t know how I got here. I head up to the house down the road to find some food or a weapon to defend myself with. Maybe I can salvage some AA batteries to get my Gameboy working again. All I need is a trustworthy person and I can trade my Kadabra so he’ll evolve into an Alakazam.
It starts raining, heavily. The house turns out empty, but the rain muffles the sound of my feet as I pass by a large congregation of Taylor Swift fans. I can hear them moaning, “whyyyy.” They cannot be saved, they are driven by an insatiable hunger for human flesh.
Further down the road I come across a small block of houses. In the first building I enter, I find a machete. The tool not the film. Otherwise this area is pretty much devoid of stuff. Either it was ransacked by other survivors or the townspeople were incredibly poor. They must have spent all of their money on the numerous sedans lining the street.
I realize that I’m becoming very thirsty. It doesn’t occur to me to look upward with my mouth open, given the rain is now in a full-fledged downpour. I could also suck on the sleeve of my shirt for nourishment, but I haven’t bathed in two weeks and the water is being repelled by the accumulated oils. I need to find something to eat.
Sjoberg’s Mandarin Oranges, my old nemesis. Sjoberg prided himself on being the first food manufacturer with “on-can DLC.” I don’t even know what that means, but there wasn’t much sympathy when old Sjoberg died at a Two Live Crew concert from a bad batch of hollandaise sauce.
In the next house over I find an AR15 on the toilet in the bathroom.
Finally, the house of a sane person. I always kept a loaded pistol sitting on the commode in case someone broke in while I was dropping an orphan off in the woods. The gun doesn’t have any bullets.
It’s about time for me to sign off for now. I’m hungry, thirsty, and loaded to the teeth with useless weaponry. Hopefully next time around I’ll be able to eat my shirt.
I feel like I’ve gotten a lot done since ArcheAge launched just a few days ago. Don’t believe me? I got my homework done in a timely fashion for my journalism class, and I even managed to level in Destiny to 23 with rank 1 in the Vanguard faction. At the rate things are going, I should be level 25 by the end of the week and might even have some coveted Vanguard armor. I’ve also been able to catch up on some reading and on the overwhelming list of podcasts I subscribe to. I also can’t even describe the amount of napping I’ve gotten in.
This must be a testament to ArcheAge, but rarely do I come across a game that I still want to play after sitting in a queue for an hour and a half, and that is with patron priority. By that time, I’d probably be doing something else, like fixing the neck muscles I’d strained by falling asleep in my $15 computer chair that has no back support. The more I venture into ArcheAge, the more I find things that I like.
ArcheAge has a great sense of freedom, on public land at least. You see, XL Games created an atmosphere where they shuffle you into the world and say “do what you want. You probably shouldn’t do all of it, but go ahead and do it anyway.” You can plant your crops on “illegal farms,” which is just anywhere that isn’t your property or public farming land, but other players can then harvest your crops or simply dig them up and destroy them, resulting in nothing for anyone. I’ve destroyed at least several gold in Yew trees around my property, but in my defense they shade my sunbathing spots.
The very idea of this introduces several play styles that need to be considered. For planters, this means finding out-of-the-way areas to plant your crops when your private land and public farms (which only allow a certain few crops to be planted) aren’t enough. I managed to plant a string of turmeric and strawberries right near a starter town by hiding them in the bushes. On the other hand, players looking for free stuff are almost guaranteed to find unguarded fruits and trees if they look into the deepest and darkest corners.
ArcheAge does offer a certain amount of protection for crops and animals. For players who don’t own property, there are public farms that will only allow a small selection of crops to be planted and only protect them for 24 hours. Owning property means finding an open piece of land and keeping up on said property’s taxes.
This leads to the game’s crime system, which is similarly handed to the players to take care of. Stealing crops, digging up plants, and murdering your own faction are all crimes in ArcheAge, but you have to be reported in order for anything to happen to you. Committing a crime leaves footprints that need to be activated and reported, and when the offending player is hauled into court, they are put in front of a jury of their peers to determine their guilt. Sentencing in prison can range from just a few minutes to, in cases where the player has stacked many many charges, hours in length, and you have to remain online for that whole time. Even prison is its own game, with the option to break out and become a pirate.
I’ve found, in my server at least, that having a good sense of humor can often get you a lenient sentence with the jury. One player started off his trial by saying “convict me, I’m guilty,” to which the jury members all called him a liar and subsequently declared him innocent. If you’re a smooth criminal, like myself, you can simply avoid the whole thing by running out the five minute clock on your footprints.
There is a ton of stuff going on in ArcheAge that I barely comprehend at this point, but it all leads to the fact that player interaction operates at a much deeper level than in other MMOs. For instance, you can run trade packages as a method of obtaining gold and gilda stars (used for purchasing houses and other goods). Trade packages must be crafted in one area and taken to another, generally through open-pvp areas where the trader becomes a soft pinata for greedy thieves. The idea is to make piracy a constant threat in ArcheAge, and the system works quite well.
At the heart of ArcheAge, and the root of some of the game’s controversy, is the labor point system. You need labor points to craft, labor points that do not come fast for non-patrons. If you are a patron, you have little to worry about. Patrons receive ten labor points every five minutes while online and five while offline. Non-patrons, on the other hand, have to be online to receive labor points at all. You can still quest and kill creatures at zero LP cost, but the higher tier crafting is going to cost an arm and a leg for non-patrons.
ArcheAge also has a very strange method of reporting bots, one that you probably aren’t aware of unless someone has specifically pointed out to you. Reporting a rule breaker (bot, hacker, afk player) is a skill in your ability window that you use on a targeted player. Reporting a player costs 25 labor, as to keep people from abusing the system, but if you report a bot and it is eventually banned, you allegedly receive a stipend of labor as a reward. Being reported, meanwhile, hampers that player with a debuff that must be removed by talking to a judge (which is simple enough).
Combat and questing in ArcheAge is standard enough, which makes me relieved that the questing apparently only runs until around level 30. You slot abilities, you tab target, and you hit numbers until the enemy is dead and you are not. I honestly have no idea what is going on with the quests, I stopped paying attention to the game’s numerous cutscenes when they started introducing the standard lineup of deities and how I am the chosen one set to save the world, blah blah blah.
At level 20, I feel like I’ve only broken the surface of what ArcheAge has to offer, and it certainly isn’t in the questing. There is a violent rift (get it?) that has shown up between patrons and non-patrons, with clans from both groups only ganking members from the opposite. Trion Worlds actually made a post on the forums asking players to tone down the f2p/p2p vitriol, although they won’t stick their hand in the game because pvp is pvp, and there are courts to handle that sort of behavior.
This is the first part of what will certainly be at least a three part look at ArcheAge, so if there is something in particular that you’d like me to have a look at, feel free to do so in the comments below.
Zombie sandbox games are the latest fad that simply won’t die, not unlike the zombies that inhabit their worlds. Rigid-Soft, an indie developer based in Sweden, is the latest to jump on board with their own take on the genre. Lifeless promises a world in which players can stake their claim in a war between three factions, use resources and loot to arm yourself with powerful weapons, and even kill zombies if you’re into that sort of thing.
The basic package runs for $25 with a $40 option that includes 1000 lifeless points, 2-exclusive masks, and access to future maps before they are released.
(Source: Rigid-Soft press release)
(Editor’s note: This article would be a whole lot more helpful with a link to the Livestream. Here it is.)
The zombie sandbox craze continues to live on, just like the zombies that inhabit the worlds. Rigid Studios is a Sweden-based independent developer looking to jump on board with their own spin on the genre, under the title of Lifeless. To show Lifeless to the masses, Rigid Studios has planned a series of Livestream events where you can watch the developers play the game and show what to expect.
Check out a pre-alpha video of the game below.
(Source: Rigid Studios Press Release)
MMO Fallout 